Sages' Guild
| upkeep_cost = | sells_for = | effects = Increases a town's Research Points output by , and allows the use of Nightshade if available. | building_unlock = }} The Sages' Guild is a type of Town Building. The Sages' Guild may be built by any race except the Gnolls, Klackons, Lizardmen and Trolls. A town must already contain a Library in order to construct a Sages' Guild. The Sages' Guild's base construction cost is . The Sages' Guild itself provides per turn, applied directly to the current Research effort undertaken by the town's controlling wizard. It is not much of an investment, given that the Sages' Guild has an Upkeep Cost of , but the cumulative effect of having many Sages' Guilds can be quite noticeable. Furthermore, if the town has any Nightshade plants within its catchment area, the Sages' Guild allows the use of this plant in order to protect the town from offensive enemy spells. The Sages' Guild advances a town down the intellectual development branch. It will always unlock the Alchemists' Guild, and for many races will also unlock the University. Both are extremely important buildings! As mentioned above, the Sages' Guild requires an Upkeep Cost of per turn for its maintenance. If you're pressed for Gold, a Sages' Guild can be sold back for . Description A Sages' Guild can be described as an early form of University. It is not a place of education, but rather an institution for sharing ideas between scholars and academics. The town's learned men congregate here to discuss new ideas and share information - leading to a respectable growth of knowledge about various magical applications. Visually, the Sages' Guild is almost a shrine: a large, cubic, white-marbled hall with an imposing staircase, leading up to its wide doors. The building is capped by a yellow dome, which portrays the symbol of the guild: a reptilian eye, at the same time serving as some kind of observatory - the eye's pupil being the lens of a large telescope. Races and Construction Only 10 of the Races are capable of producing a Sages' Guild, making it easier to count those that are not: the Gnolls, Klackons, Lizardmen and Trolls, who are too warlike or simple to have any interest in advanced intellectual pursuits. For those races that can build it, construction of the Sages' Guild requires a town to first build a Library - a place to store the writings of the great scholars debating at the guild itself. If the Library is missing, the Sages' Guild cannot be built. In fact, if the Library is lost or sold off while the Sages' Guild is still in construction, the project will be canceled prematurely and cannot be restarted until this required building is rebuilt. Construction of a Sages' Guild costs . This is a relatively-low cost, and means that most towns can eventually build this structure. The more Sages' Guilds you can build, the faster your Research efforts will go. Continuous Effects The presence of a Sages' Guild in a town has two continuous effects: It increases the number of Research Points this town produces by , and allows a town to use the Nightshade plant. The first effect applies to all towns that have a Sages' Guild, while the latter applies only if Nightshade can be found nearby. Bonus Research Points The presence of a Sages' Guild in a town increases that town's output of Research Points by per turn. This is equivalent to putting into Research, but of course does not take any at all. Instead, the Sages' Guild has an Upkeep Cost of per turn to offset this benefit. Increased Research Points naturally speeds up Research, thus allowing a wizard to acquire new spells more quickly. A single Sages' Guild is not a lot, but its bonus is cumulative with that of the Library that must be built before it, giving a total of from both buildings together. Note that the 3:2 ratio between and means that a Sages' Guild is not efficient compared to putting into Research. However, it burns off (which is sometimes abundant) instead of (which is harder to get). Alchemist wizards, on the other hand, actually get a net benefit here, essentially paying for - one and a half as efficient as putting into . Nightshade If the town has any Nightshade plants within its catchment area, the Sages' Guild unlocks the use of this unique mineral. Once the Sages' Guild is constructed, the word "Nightshade" in black letters will appear in the town's "Enchantments" list, indicating that it has been activated. Nightshade helps protect the town from spells cast by enemy wizards, including all Town Curses and any offensive spell that targets the town, its garrison, or the tile upon which it stands. If several Nightshade plants are in the town's vicinity, the protection is increased further. This is one good reason why even a unit-production center may have need for a Sages' Guild, but the same ability is also given by the cheaper (and arguably more helpful) Shrine building, and the two buildings together do not increase the Nightshade plant's effect. Unlocked Town Buildings The Sages' Guild can potentially unlock two new Town Buildings for construction: the Alchemists' Guild and the University. Only a few races however have access to the University, but both buildings are extremely important. As soon as it is constructed, the Sages' Guild unlocks construction of the Alchemists' Guild. This structure provides two very different bonuses - at least one of which is important to any town: a boost of for one, and the ability to create Normal Units with , or even ! For the majority of Races that can reach a Sages' Guild, the transition to true academic studies of magic is only natural. Therefore, once a Sages' Guild is constructed, 7 of the races can proceed to build a University. This is an extremely important structure for any race that has access to it - unlocking many of the high-tier structures that can turn a simple town into a powerhouse capital. It also grants an impressive bonus to Research, greater than that of the Sages' Guild. Note that the Barbarians, Halflings and Dwarves have no access to this building. Unlocked Normal Units The Sages' Guild unlocks no new units for any race, not even in conjunction with other Town Buildings. It is, however, another required step along the road to acquiring Magicians, Catapults, and the War College - making it important even to some unit-production centers. Strategy The Sages' Guild is the second step down the intellectual development branch, after the Library. For some races it is the end of their intellectual development (and some can't even go this far), but for others it is only one more step towards unlocking real power. For any race that can build it of course, a Sages' Guild is a boon to Research - speeding up the process of learning new spells. If many Sages' Guilds (and by definition, Libraries) are built across an empire, spell Research will go much faster and unlock new powers for the empire's master. For races that have access only to the Sages' Guild (and the Alchemists' Guild that follows it), construction of this building can at first be restricted only to intellectual centers. These races may want to put a Sages' Guild and Alchemists' Guild in major unit-production centers - or towns with access to Mithril Ore or Adamantium Ore - to produce better weapons. However the structure is not a top priority in just any town. For the 7 races that have access to a University however, the benefits of continuing development down the intellectual branch may actually be important to each and every town. The larger a town grows, regardless of its designation (intellectual, unit-production, religion, et cetera), the higher the need to build a University to unlock the high-tier structures that will boost its value and turn it into a veritable metropolis. While these 7 races still construct only a few Sages' Guilds early on, they may easily end up with one such structure in every town. Category:Town Buildings